View topic - ~mashita, ~mashou, and other endings...

by **sakura** » Sun 03.13.2005 12:55 pm

So I know that the ending ~mashita means 'has', and ~mashou means 'lets' but what other endings are there? I've only learned those two. Oh, and on which words can you put those endings on? Oh and one more question if you dont mind(I know asking a lot of questions can be annoying

) But anyways, my last question is how do you know when to start the new ending??

For example: Narimasu means 'to beome'

And if you want to say 'has become' then you say narimashita but how do you know where to take out letters in the word and replace them with the new endings?? Please help me on this, thank you

I hope you understand my questions

by **Vengeance** » Sun 03.13.2005 2:54 pm

Well, I suppose it comes from experience and/or studying. Well, there is -masu which is the present tense one. Also, -masen which is the negative so ikimasen = to not go ikimasu = to go.

If you wanna say a negetive past tense then you would do this.

kinou no ban watashi wa toukyou (h)e ikimasen deshita

I didn't go to Tokyo yesterday evening.

Hopefully I got that right.

by **Mukade** » Mon 03.14.2005 1:18 am

There's a pretty good basic, visual introduction to verbs at about.com:

http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa031101a.htm

For a more in-depth look at the verbs, check out Wikipedia:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese:Grammar:Verbs

----

I would suggest that you pay particular attention to the fact that Japanese verbs come in three flavors:

5-step verbs (alternative called Group 1 Verbs or ~u Verbs)
~iru/~eru verbs (also called Group 2 Verbs or ~ru Verbs)
Irregular verbs (also called Group 3 Verbs)

Japanese verb conjugation is very, very regular (good news for us). But the method of conjugation changes depending on which group it belongs to.

by **sampaguita** » Sun 03.27.2005 11:59 pm

I also asked the same question a few months ago. Good thing there's a site on the net that really discusses Japanese verbs in detail.

The site is:

http://www.epochrypha.com/japanese/verbs/verbs.html

Gambatte ne!

by **Spaztick** » Tue 03.29.2005 10:05 am

Don't forget you have to learn the -ru forms as well. Those are the dictionary forms, that's the form used in casual conversation, and it's easier to do/say!

EX: iku - to go

lets go - ikou
not go - ikinai (or ikenai?)
did go - ikatta (iku - ku + katta)
did not go - ikinakatta (ikinai -i + katta)

examples.